orgami's Diaryland Diary

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

winter of the 90's

its winter and the snow is thick
the light is coming in sideways
through the pines BEyond the pines
is the older forest tall and the
branchs are clicking in the wind
clumps of white are falling off
and creating shadows the sun
is fuzzy and brilliant in the dark

we have scraped down the accumulated
snow this is the general spot
we were given directions to
we use the edges of our shovels to
scratch down to the grass and roughly
mark out the square Its hard work
to cut through the crust I didnt
think it rained enough but we hit
three layers of ice We are both
sweating and stop for a moment
we sit on the coffin made of rough
hewn pine We built it from the lumber
were were sawing to heat the place
used up some nails and lined it with
an old blanket The sonofabitch was
heavy and at first we thought we
were going to have to build the box
bigger but he fit God rest his soul
Our asses started to freeze out here
and the mittens were so soaked they
were useless Who was going to start
first to pick axe through the foot
and a half of frost?? we had a spud
bar that we somehow we had dragged up
here on the corner lot First couple
of strikes just drew sparks but little
by little we were chipping a hole
we worked fast because we had only
so much light left before dark and
we didnt want to be out here alone
after dark And the snow was coming
down pretty good and the gusts
were picking up What a lousy week
to go and die and still the winter
was barely half way through we
lost track of songs to sing along too
things to talk about It was just
heaving the bar and swinging the pick
work we were used too

we broke through the frost and steam
drew through the hole where the soil
and stones were soft it was damn
near two feet thick and we were yet
to finish getting a good depth

after a short hour we decided it was
deep enough and dropped the box and
he down in there tossed some dirt
and then heaved down the bigger rocks
we had unearthed it was a bloody
pain and we were out of jokes and
with frozen fingers we said a little
prayer we hadnt even made a marker
figuring it was just as well

piled our equipment on the travoise
we had made up with some slats and
started to walk back down in the valley
at some point before we had to dig out
the lantern the sky cleared a little
and a moon shone out

it was damned cold when we made it
back to the cabin with its sod roof
and the fire was down to the embers

we were going to miss Ol Phineas

1:06 a.m. - 2010-07-27

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

previous - next